


Shootout At The O.C. Corral

by Trismegistus (Lebateleur)



Category: All Elite Wrestling, Professional Wrestling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Western, Gen, Humor, Western
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25512103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lebateleur/pseuds/Trismegistus
Summary: Jacksonville was a lawless town...The Orange Cassidy/Chris Jericho feud is one of the most entertaining things going on in AEW these days. In the spirit of that ridiculousness, please allow me to present this freshly squeezed AU.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 12





	Shootout At The O.C. Corral

Jacksonville was a lawless place. Wasn’t always that way, mind. But when Jericho and his Inner Circle boys rode into town, well, they put law-abiding folk on the run. 

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting playing poker with the boys from the stable when suddenly the saloon doors banged open and the shadow of five men fell across the room. 

Folks stopped talking. Hikaru quit playing a honky-tonk tune on the piano. One of the saloon girls shrieked and ran for the kitchen. But other’n that, it was silent as the grave. 

The man at the front of the group stepped inside and sauntered up to the bar, easy as you please, and one look at him was all it for you took to know he was bad news. Leather boots, leather pants, leather vest, hat cocked low so’s you couldn’t see his eyes. He muscled two of Cody’s boys out of the way and leaned up against the bar, pulled his bandanna down around his neck, and gestured with his chin. 

“Whisky for my boys, and a little bit o’ the bubbly for me,” he said. “On the house.”

Ole Anthony’s probably been keeping bar for longer’n I’ve been alive. Man like him’s seen a lot in his time, but I reckoned he ain’t never saw anything like that before, the way he just kept polishing that glass and gawpin’. 

“Whisky and a bit o’ the bubbly!” the man barked. “Hurry up, you idiot!”

And from that day on, Jericho an’ his Inner Circle Boys ran this town. Until, that is, the man arrived.

The man they call...Orange Cassidy.

No one knows exactly when he rode into town, or from where. Truth is, he mighta been here the whole time. Hard to say, the way he jus’ sorta slouched into existence—not there one minute, an’ there the next. Folks around here’ve gotten into the habit of saying he has something they call ‘sloth style,’ which I guess they think is a kind of magic. Me? I reckon he just weren’t the type to draw attention to hisself. One good look at him an’ you knew he was a man of few words. 

Two of Jericho’s Inner Circle boys were leanin’ on the railing outside of the saloon the day Orange Cassidy wandered up. You didn’t get the sense Orange Cassidy meant to go to the saloon. You didn’t get the sense he meant to go anywhere specific at all. But anyhow, Ortiz and Sanchez looked up, an’ there he was. Ortiz gave him a hard look. “Where you from, stranger?”

The man shrugged.

“Hey stranger,” said Sanchez. “He’s askin’ you where you’re from.”

Orange Cassidy lifted his chin a fraction, jerked it kinda over his shoulder. He mighta been answerin’ Sanchez’s question. He mighta been flickin’ a horsefly off his face. It was kinda hard to tell.

Well, like I said, Jericho’s Inner Circle boys ran this town in those days, and they didn’t take kindly to that kind of lip. Or chin. Whatever. 

And so it weren’t too long before Sanchez and Ortiz were yelling into the saloon for Jericho, hollerin’ fit to raise the Lord of All Evil hisself—which I guess Jericho kinda was, come to think of it. Anyway, not a second later the doors banged open and out came Jericho, squinting down at Orange Cassidy with a look on his face that spelled trouble.

Jericho looked Orange Cassidy up and down and pulled his bandanna down low around his neck, and you just knew a storm was brewin’, to see it. “Hey! Who do you think you are? You can’t just come wandering in here like this—this is my town.”

The man they call Orange Cassidy sighed, shifted his weight from one foot to the other. 

“Hey, I’m talkin’ to you! I said, who do you think you are, just showing up like this? Get out! Git!”

Orange Cassidy shrugged. Looked down at his feet and then looked back up again in the general direction of where Jericho was standin'.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Jericho sneered. He jabbed a thumb back toward Santana and Ortiz. “My boys don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like your stupid shirt, I don’t like your stupid hair. And I don’t like seeing your stupid face in my town. Now git!”

Orange Cassidy said nothing. He mighta blinked. It was hard to tell, on account of the sunglasses he was wearin’.

Well, that was more disrespect than Jericho and his Inner Circle boys were prepared to handle. Not a moment later Jericho came storming down the steps into the street an’ put his face right up into Orange Cassidy’s. “What’s the matter?” he demanded, eyes narrowed and voice real quiet all of a sudden. “You scared?

“Well you **should** be!” Now he was shoutin’ again, fit to wake the dead in their graves and little drops of spit flying from his mouth. “You better turn tail and run, cause if you don’t me and my Inner Circle boys are gonna run you out of town ourselves and it won’t be pretty, you idiot!”

Orange Cassidy rolled his neck from one side t’ the other, but other than that, he didn’t move.

By now Jericho was turnin’ orange enough to match the stranger’s name. “That’s it!” he shouted. “I’ve had enough of your stupid face and your stupid attitude. We’re gonna settle this! With a shootout! You and me. Right now!” And then he turned and paced down the street aways as me an’ the rest of the folks in town scrambled to get out of his way. 

Orange Cassidy just sorta shrugged and trailed after Jericho.

Jericho stopped and turned to face Orange Cassidy by the hitching post near the General Store, hands hoverin’ in the air near his holsters and murder in his eyes. Orange Cassidy hadn’t even moved a step, though he did have one foot in the air that he put back down. And there they stood, while the minutes kept tickin’ by and the buildings cast long shadows over the street, Jericho cussin' and shoutin' and Orange Cassidy just standin’ there not doing much of anything at all while the whole town o’ Jacksonville held its breath.

I saw Jericho’s fingers twitch, and it weren't a second later he had his pistols in his hands, firing off twelve shots at the man they call Orange Cassidy. Bang—bang—bang—bang—bang—bang!

Bang, bang bang! Bang bang bang!

I saw the glint in Jericho’s eye, and the smile that hitched up one corner of his mouth woulda made even Old Nick turn tail and run, to see it. I reckon folks thought that was it for our little town o’ Jacksonville, when they saw that smile. I certainly did.

But when the dust finally settled, there was Orange Cassidy standing right where he’d always been, hands on his holsters. Or, no—they were just in his pockets. Otherwise, he hadn’t moved at all.

“What?” shrieked Jericho. “That’s not possible!

“You can’t—you can’t just dodge a bullet like that! That’s not how it _works_! That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen! You aren’t gonna get away with this!” 

Orange Cassidy let him scream and holler for a minute or two. Then he sauntered up, easy as you please, hooked one leg behind Jericho’s ankle and tipped him right into the trough. An’ Jericho fell right in with the biggest splash you ever did see.

Up he came again, thrashin’ and gaspin’ and yellin’ for his Inner Circle boys to come haul me out, you bunch of useless idiots. Sanchez tried, but he just ended up slipping in the mud an’ knocking hisself out on the side of the trough. Ortiz tried, except Jericho just pulled him into the trough too, then gave him a smack on the face as if things weren't already bad enough for those two. And, well, the rest of Jericho’s Inner Circle boys, they had the sense to know trouble when they’d seen it, and they stayed clear away.

And as for the man they call Orange Cassidy? Well, he just wandered away into the sunset, or wherever.


End file.
